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But the figure 8 does nothing. It's not about how you wind your lines, it's about how you unwind them.

Care to elaborate for someone who's not very knowledgable?

You're saying you just have to unwind them the same way you wind them, right? Doing straight wraps puts twists in the lines, but if you unwrap the same way, it's alright?

When I wind and unwind my lines, both ends are fastened to something (winder on one end, kite on the other end), and these things are not twisting relative to each other regardless of whether I wind flat or figure-8, so I don't think that either winding or unwinding by itself puts twists in the line.

If I wound them up that way but then unwound them as if they were on a spool by flipping the winder over and over, or unwound them out the backside of the winder, I'd get twists, but practically speaking that's not a concern.

A figure 8 wind keeps the lines untwisted when on the winder, a flat wind doesn't.

Just my idle curiosity running amok here -- I don't get it. How does a flat wind make twists on the winder? Assuming the ends of the lines are fixed during the winding/unwinding process, how could anything introduce twists? It seems like winding and unwinding are equivalent to simply zigzagging the line back and forth, like this (using two blue lines to represent the winder just to make the picture clearer):

The lines stay parallel to each other and untwisted in both the flat (middle) and figure-8 (bottom) schemes. Am I missing something?

A figure 8 wind keeps the lines untwisted when on the winder, a flat wind doesn't.

Just my idle curiosity running amok here -- I don't get it.

OK, a little more idle curiosity and a pair of old shoelaces answered my question for me. The pictures should really look more like this (flat on top, figure 8 on bottom):

They are topologically equivalent -- in either case, if you remove the winder the green line is on top of the red line -- but the flat winding has crossings along the side of the winder as opposed to the figure-8 winding's crossings between the two prongs of the winder.

I guess it comes to a matter of preference. It just seems to me when I wrap using figure 8 that the lines avoid any twisting or remove any twist in SLK lines. Flat awlays seems to just lock up the twists and I get kinks. The only thing I can think of to compare it to is spooling a garden hose or extension cord. When I wrap an extension cord around my arm I always get twists in the cord and it starts to kink. Same with spooling the hose. With the figure 8 I just seem to avoid that issue. IDK why.

i always wrap on a figure 8 shape....that way each layer of line is on top of another crosswise....i have had times where i have done a flat wrap and if it is not tight enough then an interior loop comes off first and then it is potential for a knot issue.....

My lines are recently evened out, but when I wrap them on the winder (I do figure 8 ), one ends up a little (an inch or two) longer. I assume that means that somewhere along the line the lines took different paths in a turn and one lay lower/tighter than the other?

It's not a big deal, except that when the time comes to unwind, the lines are often coming off opposite sides of the winder at the same distance from the kite. It doesn't smoothly/quickly unwind. No tangles or anything, it just throws off the rhythm. I try to rectify it by getting them at the same point in the unwinding again, and then pulling them taut with my other hand. I have to keep the manual tension on or it will happen again.

My lines are recently evened out, but when I wrap them on the winder (I do figure 8 ), one ends up a little (an inch or two) longer. I assume that means that somewhere along the line the lines took different paths in a turn and one lay lower/tighter than the other?

It's not a big deal, except that when the time comes to unwind, the lines are often coming off opposite sides of the winder at the same distance from the kite. It doesn't smoothly/quickly unwind. No tangles or anything, it just throws off the rhythm. I try to rectify it by getting them at the same point in the unwinding again, and then pulling them taut with my other hand. I have to keep the manual tension on or it will happen again.

yep...sometimes they do not look even when wrapped up...i know that is where the RTF sets are sometimes off......the manufacturer might just wrap the lines straight onto the winder....and that can create uneven lines....

My lines are recently evened out, but when I wrap them on the winder (I do figure 8 ), one ends up a little (an inch or two) longer. I assume that means that somewhere along the line the lines took different paths in a turn and one lay lower/tighter than the other?

It's not a big deal, except that when the time comes to unwind, the lines are often coming off opposite sides of the winder at the same distance from the kite. It doesn't smoothly/quickly unwind. No tangles or anything, it just throws off the rhythm. I try to rectify it by getting them at the same point in the unwinding again, and then pulling them taut with my other hand. I have to keep the manual tension on or it will happen again.

Happens to me all the time as well, especially when I'm wrapping up fast. I just chalk it up to the lines getting separated at some point when winding over previous winds and over the distance of 85'-100' the are off by an inch or so. It's just them wrapping around different thicknesses on the winder. Wider diameter wraps a length quicker than the other line that wrapped around a thinner diameter.

Figure 8 - I had the uneven problem myself for years until I figured out that by holding my index finger between the lines to remove any twists I'd left in I was causing the lines to take different paths. I still remove the twists but put my pinky between the lines thus keeping both lines together as they go on the winder.

Logged

"Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see" John W Lennon

"People do not quit playing because they grow old, they grow old because they quit playing" George Bernard Shaw

Figure 8 - I had the uneven problem myself for years until I figured out that by holding my index finger between the lines to remove any twists I'd left in I was causing the lines to take different paths. I still remove the twists but put my pinky between the lines thus keeping both lines together as they go on the winder.

+1

But my lines still get less than 1" off when I'm done wrapping them. But to me it's better than having them twisted on the winder.

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